摘要
Three behaviors of epidemiological importance,namely feeding latency,feeding duration and defecation latency,for six populations of Meccus phyllosomus longipennis(Usinger)from areas of central,western and north-central Mexico with high(HP)and low(LP)prevalence of Trypanosoma cruzi(Chagas)human infection were evaluated in this study.The median feeding latency(the time taken to begin feeding)was highly variable between instars.Within-instar comparisons showed that at least 65%of the LP populations(N3 to adult)started to feed significantly(P<0.05)later than the HP population,with N1 showing no difference,and N2 from LP populations feeding sooner than those from HP populations.The six populations had similar median feeding durations within instars.A higher(P<0.05)percentage of the instars from HP populations defecated faster than the respective instars from the three LP populations.Approximately 25%of the young nymphs(N1 to N3)and females in the HP populations defecated<2 min postfeeding,compared with 4%-6%of the young nymphs and 1.3%-3%of females in the LP populations.Moreover,17.7%-38.8%of the older nymphs(N4 to N5)in the HP populations and 6.8%-13.4%in the LP populations defecated during or immediately after feeding.Our results indicate that the HP populations have a greater potential than the LP populations to transmit T.cruzi infections,which may underlie the differences in the prevalence of T.cruzi infection in some areas where M p.longipennis is currently distributed.
基金
Universidad de Guadalajara research program(SAC/CIP/2017-45).
